Investing

Top Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades: Apple, Dow Chemical, GoPro, Netflix, Snap, FedEx, MetLife and Many More

Jon C. Ogg

Published: March 6, 2017 9:05 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 2:14 pm

Stocks were indicated to open down about 0.25% on Monday on a light news morning, but a day where investors are leaning further and further to a March rate hike from the Federal Reserve. The bull market will turn eight years old this week, and investors have bought after every single sell-off for over five years now. Those same investors are also looking for new ideas and overlooked opportunities.

24/7 Wall St. reviews dozens of analyst reports each day of the week. The goal is to find new investing and trading ideas for our readers. Some of the analyst reports cover stocks to buy, while other reports cover stocks to sell or to avoid.

Some color has been added on many of the following calls, and the consensus analyst price targets referenced are from Thomson Reuters.

These are the top analyst upgrades, downgrades and initiations seen on Monday, March 6, 2017:

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was reiterated as Buy and the price target was raised to $160 from $140 (versus a $139.78 prior close) at Citigroup. Apple’s consensus analyst price target is $142.48 and its 52-week trading range is $89.47 to $140.28.

Dow Chemical Co. (NYSE: DOW) was raised to Buy from Hold and the price target was raised to $75 from $65 (versus a $63.26 close) at Jefferies.

GoPro Inc. (NASDAQ: GPRO) was downgraded to Sell from Neutral with a $6 price target (versus an $8.84 close) at Goldman Sachs. It took a similar downgrade last week from Citigroup, but the price target was $8 in that call. GoPro has a 52-week range of $8.54 to $17.68.

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) was raised to Buy from Neutral and the price target was raised to $175 from $136 (versus a $139.14 close) at UBS. Netflix has a 52-week range of $84.50 to $145.95 and a consensus price target of $148.05.

Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) was started as Underperform at Needham. Shares closed up 10.6% at $27.09 on Friday and were indicated up 4.7% at $28.37 on Monday. Snap’s post-IPO trading range has been $23.50 to $29.44.

FedEx Corp. (NYSE: FDX) was raised to Outperform from Market Perform at BMO Capital Markets. FedEx closed at $194.35 on Friday, in a 52-week range of $139.58 to $201.57 and with a consensus analyst target of $210.09.

MetLife Inc. (NYSE: MET) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Merrill Lynch. The stock closed up 2.6% at $54.83 on Friday and was indicated down 1.1% at $54.20 on Monday. MetLife’s 52-week range is $36.17 to $58.09, and its consensus analyst price target is $59.71.

Other key analyst calls were seen in the following:

Albemarle Corp. (NYSE: ALB) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy with a $112 price target (versus a $104.77 close) at Citigroup.

ClubCorp Holdings Inc. (NYSE: MYCC) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform with an $18 price target (versus a $16.90 close) at Macquarie.

E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Co. (NYSE: DD), better known as DuPont, was raised to Buy from Hold at Jefferies, and the price target was raised to $96 from $83 (versus a $79.60 close).

Garmin Ltd. (NASDAQ: GRMN) was raised to Neutral from Sell at Goldman Sachs.

Johnson Control International PLC (NYSE: JCI) was started with a Neutral rating and assigned a $44 price target (versus a $42.06 close) at JPMorgan.

Mead Johnson Nutrition Co. (NYSE: MJN) was downgraded to Neutral from Outperform at Credit Suisse.

Minerva Neurosciences Inc. (NASDAQ: NERV) was started as Buy and assigned a $17 price target (versus an $8.30 close) at Jefferies.

Regency Centers Corp. (NYSE: REG) was started as Equal Weight and assigned a $72 price target (versus a $67.74 close) at Barclays.

TETRA Technologies Inc. (NYSE: TTI) was downgraded to Equal Weight from Overweight at Morgan Stanley.

Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS.

United Therapeutics Corp. (NASDAQ: UTHR) was downgraded to Underperform from Hold but the price target was maintained at $116 (versus a $149.47 close) at Jefferies.

Universal Health Services Inc. (NYSE: UHS) was raised to Overweight from Equal Weight and the price target was raised to $147 from $119 (versus a $125.58 close) at Piper Jaffray.

Friday’s top analyst calls included Broadcom, Ciena, GoPro, National Oilwell Varco, Snap, Expedia, Palo Alto Networks and many more.

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